The stuffing of chunk, sectioned and formed meat products into casing has been a continuing commercial problem to the meat packing industry. As distinct from the very sophisticated automated machinery typically utilized in the high speed stuffing of ground and emulsified meats for sausages, etc., the machinery utilized in stuffing chunk, sectioned and formed meat products has been slower and more cumbersome to operate.
Conventionally, the stuffing of meat which had not been ground or otherwise emulsified had been manually performed. Typically, tubular casings were cut into short predetermined lengths and the individual casings were fitted to extrusion filling nozzles where the meat was extruded therein. Upon filling, the casing was shaped and the ends were tied to form the stuffed meat product. As is apparent, significant quantities of casing was wasted, the extrusion was messy and the entire process was labor intensive.
In the last seveal years, several apparatus have been proposed for the more efficient stuffing of chunk, sectioned and formed meats. Each of the apparatus automates steps in the aforesaid conventional method of meat stuffing but with significant reductions in labor intensity and increases in efficiency. Though the sophistication of the art has been significantly enhanced, problems still exist in the waste of casing material and speed of manufacturer.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement and stuffing apparatus which avoids the shortcomings and drawbacks encountered in the prior art.
Another object of the present invention resides in an improved arrangement and apparatus for stuffing meat, not in the ground or emulsified state, into casings which have been adapted for the automatic production of stuffed meat products.
A further object of the present invention resides in providing an arrangement and apparatus for stuffing meat which requires minimum manual labor.
Another further object of the present invention is to provide an improved arrangement and apparatus for stuffing chunk, sectioned and formed meat with reduced casing waste.